Information About & Registration For English Language Proficiency Assessment for the 21st Century (ELPA21) Field Tests

Registration recently opened for the ELPA21 field test, and the Iowa Dept. of Education is encouraging all districts with ELLs to participate. The first round of registration will remain open only until Oct. 17. During this time, the Dept. needs to get as many districts registered as possible. After that, ELPA21 will determine where gaps in student population arise and invite only some districts to participate. Iowa has more ELLs than many of the other consortium states, so the consortium is looking to us to provide enough students for a successful field test. 

Iowa is a member of the English Language Proficiency Assessment for the 21st Century (ELPA21). The consortium is developing a replacement assessment for our Title I mandated English language proficiency assessment, Iowa English Language Development Assessment (IELDA). This new assessment will begin in spring 2016 with the first administration of the online K-12 summative assessment. Beginning in spring 2017 an online screening assessment for placement of students into an ESL program is due to be completed. 

ELPA21 is a consortium of states committed to supporting educators, member states and the public as they adopt and implement the new English Language Proficiency (ELP) Standards and college- and career-ready standards. These standards have been adopted by the Iowa State Board of Education and will begin being implemented by districts during the 2015-16 school year. The consortium is developing an assessment system based on these new ELP Standards that will provide valuable information to inform instruction so that all English language learners leave high school prepared for college and career success. 

There are two field tests for ELPA21. The January dates are for just testing the platform and could be done with only adults taking the role of a student in a district. It is to ensure the test platform works on the district’s system. This one is called the Platform and System Trial. The second dates, Feb. 2 to Mar. 31 are for field testing with students. To assist, Iowa has left open the testing window from Feb. 2 to Mar. 31 to accommodate districts’ schedules rather than setting required testing window dates. 

The Dept. is hosting two Zoom meetings on Oct. 13 – one at 9:00 a.m. and one at 2:00 p.m. – to support anyone assisting districts in their registration and to answer any questions not answered above. They have also placed additional information on their English Language Learners webpage. 

For your assistance, here are five documents from the Iowa Dept. of Education: 

• A memo from David Tilly, Deputy Director of the Dept. of Education 
• A Field Test Walk-Through PPT that we will use on Monday
• ELPA21 Field Test FAQs to assist you in answering questions
• A minimum technical requirements document you can share with tech support in a district
• ELPA21 First Edition Newsletter